


set to the cuckoo's song

by AwayLaughing



Series: lines of descent [15]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gen, Grandparents & Grandchildren, Meditation, POV Outsider, Teaching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:42:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26521597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwayLaughing/pseuds/AwayLaughing
Summary: Hyuuga Satori has long stood to the side and watched her grandson - unable to reach out to him, even to speak. A chance encounter though leaves her with an opportunity she cannot bring herself to turn down. No matter the risks.
Series: lines of descent [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/530335
Comments: 11
Kudos: 24





	set to the cuckoo's song

The approach of a chakra signature that was simultaneously familiar, and that of a perfect stranger, stopped Satori in the middle of collecting her kunai from her targets. As still as a deer looking for a predator, she tracked it for a moment, only turning her Byakugan on when she was certain it was approaching her. Eyes opening wide, she focused on the greyscale world around her, immediately finding the bright, churning core of her grandson.

Walking right towards her.

Heart suddenly beating harder than it had during her evening training, she let her Byakugan drop, she stared blindly at her target for a moment. Then, she took a breath, squared her shoulders, and went back to cleaning up. A moment later she heard the angry feet across the dusty grass come to a stop, felt his already agitated chakra spike in surprise.

Despite herself, she smothered a smile. Getting so angry you forgot to track what was going around you – a familiar problem.

She schooled herself though, instead turning slightly, and then, as if she had only been interested in knowing who was behind her, turned back to liberating the last kunai.

“I’ll be gone in a moment,” she called over her shoulder, “just cleaning up.” She kept her chakra sedate, she kept her tone light. He didn’t respond exactly, just standing there warily on the edge of the secluded little training ground, expression both closed off and stormy. He was painfully transparent, and she had to strain not to look for recognizable angles of that angry glower. Instead she walked silently past him, nodding her head in a polite goodbye that got her a senseless mutter and a nod back.

She meant to leave entirely – she did. But...

But...

She did not want to. And so she didn’t fight when her feet came to a sudden stop near the entrance to the training ground. Turning, she found herself unsurprised that she’d been utterly ejected from mind already, Neji already striking out at the air in familiar kata. As such, she felt comfortable stopping to watch – or, nearly comfortable. The idea she should not being doing this, that it was too open, too defiant itched at her shoulders. She ignored it, settling down to silently watch.

Or, tried to. As it was, Neji-kun was not apparently having a good night. He had neglected any kata he might know in favour of throwing himself at the training grounds. Instincts stronger than the stunted familial ones she’d let herself give into over took her, and she watched him not as a grandmother, but as a teacher.

After about five minutes, she realized he was attempting the 64 palm – a bit much, at 7 she thought. He could summon the chakra, but he lost control of it quickly. His form had a strong backing, but she could see the lack of discipline in every line, in every too strong spike of chakra. After five more minutes, she gave up entirely on keeping her thoughts to herself and cleared her throat.

“Neji-kun,” she called, shifting ever so slightly in place so she could unhook and place her belt to the side.

“Yes obaasama?” he asked, tone tight as he took a few steps towards her. Apparently noticing that himself, she watched him straighten up a bit more, and manage a more civil tone when he added, “how may I serve?”

“You can take a seat with me,” she said, patting the ground next to her.

“I am training, obaasama,” he said, and this time, his tone wasn’t enough of a distraction to the painful throbbing feeling behind her lungs at being referred to as such. The unintended correctness of the appellation was like having a kunai slowly dug into her rib cage.

“You are thrashing about, actually,” she said, keeping her tone dry. Neji immediately bristled, but she ignored it. “Ten minutes,” she said, “I promise it will help.”

There was a moment of quiet tension where he didn’t move, and she wasn’t sure if it was a small rebellion, or uncertainty. Regardless, either the bone deep training of every Hyūga not do defy your elders or just a natural politesse overcame him. He settled across from her, about two arm’s lengths away, coping her posture without being told. His scowl had softened to something a bit more wary, and so she smiled her best Friendly Jōnin Sensei smile.

“Have you meditated before?” she asked, already knowing his answer.

“At the Academy,” he said, immediately shifting into a more rigid sitting position. Expected. The Academy’s main focus was more on making sure students weren’t walking sandpaper to sensors, than anything. A teacher with 30 children of the ages seven to eight was more or less doomed when it came to the search for nirvana through inner peace, so getting them to be still and quiet for ten minutes was usually what they settled for.

“A good starter,” she said, since it was – sitting still with nothing to do for 10 minutes at that age was no joke. “Let us see if we can’t aim a bit higher than merely beginning, though.”

Neji scowled again, and she could see he wanted to say something. He didn’t though, instead he tossed his long brown hair – she bit back a sigh knowing Ryōko would never get to pass on her gloriously unusual copper locks – and setting his shoulders so straight you could measure with them. He didn’t close his eyes though, staring her down.

Well, whatever happened in the main house to turn Hinata-chan into a wilting flower had clearly either bypassed Neji, or had a different effect.

“Firstly, do you know you mudras?” she asked. When he nodded, she prompted him to show her and he did. Done, she asked, “and what do you want to do today?”

He paused there, frown slipping into something more thoughtful and less like he was daring her to try something.

“I want to focus,” he said finally.

“Hmm,” she said, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “A broad request, but reasonable,” she looked at him closely, and then she said, “what’s distracting you?”

He looked away at that, searching the ground at her right knee for answers. “Everything,” he said very quietly after a moment. She resisted any reaction to that – to ask what everything meant. She wasn’t his grandmother in any way that mattered, no one who could reasonably play the confidant. He wouldn’t tell her, wouldn’t thank her.

Past the feeling in her throat, voice deceptively unchanged she said, “well then. Classic zen it is,” she said, and nearly in time they placed their hands facing up, back of the right hand fingers cradled in the left, thumbs touching. Letting her voice drop into a drone she said, “take a deep breath, and when you exhale, relax. Keep your back straight, but let all tension ease out, into the ground. She is broad and strong, let her hold it for it you.”

Neji tried his best, but she could see it didn’t come naturally to him. Still, she talked, guiding him as best she could. Eventually she could feel it, the slow smoothing of agitated chakra, and peeking with her byakugan, she could see it in the act of settling into a flow within his system. She also saw a figure behind them, and she tensed, nearly tripping over her words to Neji.

Hiashi-sama was less than 50 meters away, watching. She watched back, waiting for that bright cold chakra to move towards her. To remind her of what she’d done – the cost of her defiance.

That she was not to ever speak to the family she’d betrayed the Clan to try and form. As if wanting a life beyond slavery for her daughter was unreasonable. As if love was treason.

He didn’t though. He watched, and she watched him, her mouth thankfully having guided countless less good students through early meditations, knowing what to do without her input. Eventually, he pulled away, and she shut down her byakugan, refusing to give into the fear that made her want to watch him disappear into the halls of the main family’s house.

Faith, she reminded herself often, was usually the healthier choice over paranoia.

Above them, the sun was solidly slipping towards the horizon, indicating they’d well past her ten promised minutes. For a moment she considered continuing – but if this was all they had, she didn’t want Neji to remember her as another obstacle, even if just to doing his kata under the light of the sun.

“Neji-kun,” she said, breaking her pattern by speaking just a bit louder. The response was a flicker of chakra and nothing else, but it was enough. “I must go now, and you’ve done very well. If you’d like to continue, feel free to do so, but the sun will set in about forty minutes.”

That made him open his eyes, and she wasn’t surprised when he frowned up at her – a somewhat hilariously incongruous expression, given he’d not dropped his meditative stance. She expected him to remark on her going over their agreed time, but he surprised her.

“I don’t know your name, obaasama,” he said, standing with an impressive amount of grace. Either he was quiet physically talented, or his schooling was effective. Privately, as a proud grandmother, she hoped for the former, against what her inner Jōnin Sensei desired. Nobody said grandmothers had to be practical. And no one had ever said she wasn’t selfish.

“I am Satori,” she said.

He dropped into a polite bow – a very precise one, she noted with a small smile, as was her due as an elder and not an inch more. “My thanks, Satori-sama,” he said, “for taking time to teach me.”

“It was my pleasure,” she said with enough honesty he must have noticed, because he raised his head and looked at her, expression confused.

“Why?”

_Because I loved your mother, because I think I love you even if I don’t know you, because I’m your grandmother and because you are you._

“I’ve been a teacher many long years, Neji-kun,” she said, “I always find joy in any student who crosses my paths.”

He didn’t say “uh-hu,” but his quirked eyebrows and narrowed expression gave him away all the same. “Thanks,” he said instead, clearly not sure what else to say. “Where are you going?”

“Ah, to finish up some paper work, alas. My genin and I are headed out on a C-rank the day after tomorrow, I like to get what I can dealt with before we go, rather than with my reports after.”

“Oh,” Neji said, and to her surprise said, “I guess you never get away from homework.”

“No, you don’t,” she said laughing slightly. “And I fear if we linger, we’ll both have to do ours by late night candle light. Have a good evening, Neji-kun.”

“You as well, Satori-sama. Have a safe mission.”

“Thank you Neji-kun, I will take your wishes gladly,” she said. Lest she find an excuse to linger longer, she quickly turned, headed to her empty little house near the gate. A few people out and about nodded to her, but no one acted as if they knew what she’d just done. There was also no sign of Hiashi-sama anywhere, and she was able to breath out when she got home. Nothing and no one – except her papers and some left over for dinner.

Walking slowly, she set about heating the oven. If Hiashi-sama never came to spoke with her...what would that mean? She wondered, taking the tin foil off. Should she approach him? It had been nearly four years – an appeal couldn’t hurt. Or, not more than anything hurt already. Tomorrow was no good – there were nervous genin to deal with, and not enough time to plan. When she got back then. She’d ask for an audience, and make her case.

With any luck, she could tell Neji the truth. It wouldn’t make up for the things lost, the time they couldn’t get back. But, it was better than nothing. And far better than accepting defeat.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey!! It's been a while so, have a fresh serving of BRAND NEW Hyuuga angst! Completely new stuff here - this is a reboot of Neji's maternal grandparents. The old one, "The Memory Trap" has been booted from the series but still exists if you happened to enjoy it, don't fret. Satori's a very different character with a very different background - it's hinted at here. If you're interested in seeing more of her, feel free to let me know!


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